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Torino-Milan Preview: In the Bull Pen

The phrase “in the bull pen” is more commonly associated
with baseball. But our match on Saturday takes a literal approach to the
phrase, in that we face il Toro in
their stadium, or pen. This is no warmup, it’s do or die drop 3 more points
against a lower table team. With the added storyline of Cerci potentially
playing against the team that made him, it could end up a lot like a rodeo.
Only will Milan be mere clowns? Or will we bravely defeat the bulls? Without
any consistency this season, I wouldn’t put any money on it either way.

Yeah, it's gonna be kinda like that

Torino come into the match in 14th place with four wins, six
draws, and seven losses. They started off the new year with a very frustrating
draw away to Chievo on Tuesday, so will be looking for a result against Milan. For
that match, Ventura lined up Padelli; Maksimovic, Gaston Silva, Glik; Molinaro,
Farnerud, Gazzi, Vives, Darmian; Martinez, and Quagliarella.

One good omen is that Amauri, who seems to punish us no
matter what team he plays for, is set to miss this match due to a muscle
problem. That only leaves us with other ex-Juve players like Quagliarella and
former Milan youth players like Darmian to worry about hurting us. Well there's Nocerino, but he could have signed with Parma before this even posts. However also
missing will be Barettao, as he is injured. And there are question marks for
Larrondo, Perez, and Sanchez Miño as well.

"Yes, Torino, I'm with someone else now. But we can still be friends, right?

Milan have a potential threat of their own now with Cerci
facing his former team. That could go either way, especially considering he
only has about 25 minutes of playing time with us at this point and is not
fully match fit. He said the right thing, that he won’t celebrate against
Torinoif he scores, but let’s ease into
that scenario and let him score one first. I am banking on his ties to Giampiero
Ventura, though, who was his coach at both Pisa and Torino. Those three seasons
were his best seasons. So if we can just convince him that he is playing for
Ventura again, maybe he will be able to win this thing for us.

For Inzaghi, of course Honda is at the Asian Cup. Both
Bonera and van Ginkel are still out injured, I believe. But Armero, De Jong, and
Mexes are all eligible to play again after serving one match bans on Tuesday.
And yes, Mexes is training with the squad again after injury, too, so could
feature. Also, if you believe opposition fans, Rocchi could feature for
us as well, as he has been appointed to ref this match. To be fair, he did earn a
suspension after “helping” us in the past, so it’s easy to see how his loyalty
could come under scrutiny.

"Who, me? You want me to sub on, Inzaghi? Sure. I know what to do"

On the topic of scrutinizing loyalty, it’s easy to see why
so many Milan fans are questioning their own loyalty these days. Which is
understandable, given what is going on and has been happening these past
several years. And those who are remaining loyal are likely to be numb, in
severe pain, having panic attacks at the thought of watching these strangers
wearing our shirts in the name of Milan, and more. Just remember that when… if…
well in the hopes that Milan return to the European elite someday, the
victories will be that much sweeter having suffered this now.

Speaking of suffering, I’m watching the game on Saturday,
are you? No judgments from me if you don’t, but misery does love company.
Despite everything that is going on, some tiny little speck in my Grinch-sized
heart has hope that we will get a result. (It’s small so that if we don’t get a
result, then it won’t hurt as much.) Let’s take advantage of Cerci wearing the
Milan shirt now and Amauri being sidelined and unable to punish us as usual and also hope that Rocchi is not considered our 12th man. No controversy, no injuries,
and maybe even three points… is that too much to ask? Probably. But if we are
gonna be in the bull pen, we might as well leave it all out there.